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"'Scandal' involving conservative writers about politics, not ethics"
By Michael Fumento
So writes Tom Giovanneti, president of the Institute for Policy Innovation, in today's National Review Online. Yes, he addresses the attack that stripped away my syndicated column.
Fumento helped raise money from sympathetic corporations to support his work, money which went to his employer. This is not unusual, among left-leaning organizations as well as right. But, because Fumento's work was supported by corporations, the Left hangs a cloud of controversy over it, even though everything seems to have been done in a completely aboveboard and legal manner.
But Giovanneti knows there's a lot more at stake here.
Noting that the Business Week columnist, Eamon Javers, whose false and twisted accusations, combined with Scripps Howard's cowardice, ended my column has repeatedly gone after only conservative journalists, Giovanneti says,
To the degree that we assent to the Left's critique, we encourage them to persist in this unfair and selective campaign. So long as free people are freely supporting with their own wealth organizations and individuals whose work they admire, we should celebrate that, not impugn it."
In fact, as Lisa de Pasquale has written in Human Events, Javers himself has taken favors from lobbyists whose clients he subsquently smothered with praise--though we can hardly expect Javers to write an expose on himself, can we?
Ultimately,write Giovanneti
Those of us who run conservative organizations and who serve as editors of conservative journalistic outlets need to draw clear and distinct lines between (on one hand) those who have clearly broken laws and/or engaged in genuinely unethical conduct and (on the other) those who are for whatever reason opportunistic targets caught up in the swirl. Basic fairness, as well as political prudence, demands that we make these distinctions, even if--especially if--the Left does not.
Those are just the highlights. Read the rest of this excellent essay.
February 6, 2006 06:48 PM ·
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